Kyle Krueger, a staff engineer with the Colorado River Municipal Water District, stands next to an older water well on land acquired through state financing near Wickett, Texas.

If there is a silver lining to the intensifying drought, it is that after years of hand-wringing from water experts, Texas seems poised to get serious about financing water projects. Competing proposals are floating around the Capitol, with talk of drawing $1 billion or more from the Rainy Day Fund.